30 January 2006 For liberal Palestinians fearful that the newly-elected Hamas party intends to enforce Islamic law on the country’s citizens, senior Hamas leaders say, take heart: yes, Sharia will be used as a guide for legislation, but only in a “polite way” meant to convince people. Such polite theocratic manipulation, Hamas leaders told Reuters,...

Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the co-founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, on Friday, March 19, three days before his assassination. (Photo: New York Times, Elio Colavolpe/Emblema) See the Dreamer in his wheelchair. A poor man. Paralyzed. Blind to this world. Many Palestinians revered him. He was their truth teller. The Israelis killed him with missiles on his...

“See the Dreamer in his wheelchair. A poor man. Paralyzed. Blind to this world…” Or was he? Photo-historian Michael Lesy takes a hard look at one of the disturbing images that came out of the Middle East last week in this latest, original “Revealing” essay. Concentrating on a photograph taken just days before the assassination of the terrorist...